Hello, this is my first opportunity to post on this board. I am thinking about adding a rod to my collection to be a dedicated streamer rod. I am thinking about possibly a 9' -6 weight with a streamer express sink tip line. What is everyone's opinion on a rod? I already have a Orvis T3 9'- 7 weight that I use for throwing big bass hair poppers and for some steelheading. I know that would work but it has a fighting butt and is not the lightest thing in the world (read that as tiring to cast a lot) that is why I was thinking about the 6. Thanks!

fraserdave: Your line of thinking is exactly what I'm thinking of doing also. I floated the South Fork of the Snake River with Davo a couple of weeks ago and my Orvis TLS 5 wt, 9.5 tip flex is a little light for throwing streamers and I also want the express sink tip line as the name of the game is getting the fly down fast.

A 150 grain integrated sink tip will do the job fairly well and will cast well on a 5wt. I recently saw some ECHO Classic 9' 5wt's on eBay supa cheap. Its a great rod that will throw that line really well.

Save the dough, fish the 7wt. Don't worry about those extra 2 ounces, if your stripping streamers you are not fishing for 12" fish. I use a 9' 7wt. when I'm looking for big trout. I don't use sink tip lines, I go with longer leaders for running deep and a 24" lead head spliced in half way with 12 lb. test floro as the lightest leader material. I only use the lead head if I need to get down past three feet of depth.

Sink tips mess with the action that you can impart to the fly. A floating line and a sunk fly allow for the combination of up-current mending for allowing sink time followed by down stream mends and a deadly cross current greased line retrieve.